nhs complaints

Hello again it’s me, Peggy

 

More here on my true story:

 

Bassetlaw Hospital Radiology Department 19 August 1991: to have x-rays taken of my Right knee.

 

I attended the Radiology Department whereupon they first took 3 x-rays. One x-ray plate was of both my knees together (AP View) and then two single plates showing my left knee and my Right knee separately (LAT View) x-rays.

 

They asked to wait in the waiting area, as they do, to wait and see if the x-rays had processed properly. A few minutes later I was re-called to have another x-ray taken (a LAT View) of my Right knee. I thought at the time that they had taken the x-ray from a slightly different angle but I have since discovered that if radiographers discover, from an x-ray, as they just had in my case, that something in the knee area had not clearly shown, I’ve been told they use a different exposure rate when taking a further x-ray. This 2^nd LAT View x-ray became known as the “4” x-ray of 19/08/91.

 

Over the ongoing weeks I contacted my GP several times but she denied having received my results from the Bassetlaw Hospital. When I eventually saw her she read the report to herself and simply said that there was nothing untoward and therefore nothing further that they could do other than prescribe pain-killers.

 

In December 1991 I saw a Locum GP. He read-out the report relating to my Right knee x-ray. He mentioned my Right knee x-ray reporting as the x-ray showing one or more loose bodies in the medial aspect of my knee. He said; “Strictly off the Record”, that there was something that could be done for my knee problem. I put this to my then solicitors at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors but I will come back to talking about them later.

 

It was July 1993 before I first set eyes on the 4^th LAT View x-ray. It was at the Dukeries Clinic in Worksop but Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr Verinder made no mention of the image that could be seen in what I know now to be the medial aspect of my Right knee in the x-ray he had on his illuminated panel. He diagnosed me as suffering from the controversial diagnosis RSD.

 

It was 5^th November 1996 when I saw a Mr Zeraati at the Bassetlaw Hospital after having a fall and attending the Grimsby Hospital where they had taken x-rays of my Right knee in July 1996 and referred me back to the Bassetlaw Hospital, where I had further x-rays done. When I walked into his consulting room Mr Zeraati had already put a July 1996 LAT View x-ray of my Right knee on his illuminated display panel. He said; “Are you aware that you have a foreign body in your Right knee Mrs Barnes”.

 

He identified the image in the x-ray which I had seen previously on the medial aspect of my Right knee in the 1991 x-ray, when in Verinder’s office in 1993. He selected another LAT View x-ray of my Right knee from his desktop and put that on his display and at the same time saying “it was there in 1991 look”. Both I and my husband told him that we had seen that very same x-ray in 1993 when in Verinder’s Office but Mr Verinder had not considered or advised me of the image that could be seen on the medial aspect of my Right knee in that x-ray.

 

I subsequently made an application to the Bassetlaw Hospital via Kate Patterson Solicitors for copies of my x-rays but they failed to copy and send that specific 19/8/1991 x-ray.

My husband attended the Bassetlaw Hospital on 3/12/1997 where he identified that specific x-ray (and the bony lesion seen on the medial aspect of my Right knee in that film) to Pat Hewitt, the then Medical Records Clerk and Mrs Carol Perry, Grade 2 Radiographer. They told him that they were unable to copy the film while he waited because the x-ray copying machine had just broken down. A likely story, what!! When he returned the next day (after receiving a telephone call from the hospital) they denied that the Right knee LAT View x-ray (which he had identified to the two hospital staff just the previous day) and dated 19/08/1991, had ever existed.

 

The then Medical Records Manager, Mr Kieran Colton, was called to the interview, where he told my husband that he was not saying it had not existed but that it was up to my husband to prove that it had.

 

The x-ray report for the 19/08/1991 x-rays was obtained from the Bassetlaw Hospital and the one or more loose bodies as mentioned been seen on the medial aspect of my knee had been reported as been in my left knee as opposed to my Right knee. I alleged that the report for the x-ray of my left knee was actually the report for my Right knee. It was also noted that the report for my Right knee made no mention of the absence of the patella which had been removed from my Right knee in 1987, and this was a significant factor because the x-ray Request Form requested x-rays of both knees for comparison.

 

I forwarded the Report onto a Mr Ian Bourne at the Information Commissioner’s office. In a letter copied to me he wrote that he believed if only from the semantics     of the report he believed Mrs Barnes had a case.

 

Mr Zeraati (Orthopaedic Surgeon) was asked by me to confirm that he had indeed identified that specific 19/08/1991 x-ray to us, and the image of the bony lesion seen in that film, when we attended his consulting rooms at the Bassetlaw Hospital on 5^th November 1996, and he said it was more than his job was worth.

 

This true story continues ……